LABORATORY TEST REPORT
Readers interested in a full technical appraisal of the performance of the Boenicke W8 Loudspeakers should continue on and read the LABORATORY REPORT published on the following pages. Readers should note that the results mentioned in the report, tabulated in performance charts and/or displayed using graphs and/or photographs should be construed as applying only to the specific sample tested.
Graph 1 shows the frequency response of the Boenicke W8 speakers, as measured using Newport Test Labs’ standard technique for this test, which involves using pink noise to characterise the low-frequency in-room response of the loudspeaker and gated sine wave techniques to measure the high frequencies, with the two different measurements spliced together (at 1kHz) to show performance across and beyond the audio spectrum. You can see that if we ignore the two sharp high-frequency peaks at 11kHz and 16kHz and the small dips at 28kHz and 35kHz (which we safely can, as they would be inaudible to the human ear) the overall response extends from 42Hz to 40kHz ±5dB. Interestingly, the response ‘curve’ of the W8 is very, very similar to the response curve of the Boenicke W5, so the two speakers have obviously been ‘voiced’ to sound the same. The main difference is that the Boenicke W8 has both a more-extended bass response than the Boenicke W5 and also a more-extended high-frequency response than that speaker.
The low-frequency response of the Boenicke W8 was measured by Newport Test Labs using a standard near-field technique. You can see that the output of the port (red trace) peaks at 33Hz and has a fairly high Q, being 6dB down at 24Hz and 46Hz. The port’s output also appears to have a resonance up around 400Hz. The low-frequency response of the Boenicke W8’s side-firing driver (black trace) rolls off smoothly below 100Hz to reach a minima at 35Hz. The response above 100Hz is smooth, with a very slight roll-off. The response of the lower of the two drivers on the front panel is represented by the green trace on Graph 2. You can see that its low-frequency response starts rolling off at around 160Hz, with the approx.